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Instructional Strategies

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MRC: Overview of the Solar System (Grades 3-5)

This is a lesson about the size and scale of planets in the solar system. Learners will kinesthetically model the order of the planets outward from the sun. Then they will use a string and beads to create a model to represent the relative distances between the planets.

The Incredible Two-Inch Universe

In this activity, learners explore the size and scale of the universe by shrinking cosmic scale in 4 steps, zooming out from the realm of the Earth and Moon to the realm of the galaxies. This informational brochure was designed as a follow-up take-home activity for teen and adult audiences.

Finding Impact Craters with Landsat

In this activity, students consider the sudden release of a tremendous amount of kinetic energy when an extraterrestrial object strikes the Earth. In small groups, they study satellite images that show possible evidence of impact events.

Climate Kids: Make Seed Paper

The recycled paper produced from the instructions provided contains an additional component - wildflower seeds. The entire paper disc can be planted; the sprouting of the flowers can be observed and analyzed.

The Tools of Gamma Ray Astronomy

NASA scientist, Neil Gehrels, serves as your guide to this online lesson on gamma ray tools, which focuses on advances in detector technologies since the 1980s that have enabled us to capture and image high-energy phenomena. Dr.

Should this Laser Slinging Slug have Fired his Weapon?

This fact card discusses the shape of space and how light is affected by the amount of dark matter and energy in the universe. MAP's microwave detection gives us enormous insight into the creation of this matter and energy.

Audience:
Informal education, General public, High school programming

Topic:
Earth and space science, Astronomy, Origins and evolution of the universe

A Hovmuller plot is a diagram that visibly displays data patterns from a selected latitude or longitude over a time period. Through a storyline and several samples, students are introduced to a Hovmuller plot of temperature data along a longitude in the eastern United States.

ClimateBits: Fast Carbon, Slow Carbon

This video is narrated by NASA scientist Peter Griffith who explains fast and slow carbon cycling on Earth. A banana is an example of fast, young carbon. A chunk of coal is an example of old, slow carbon.